Who does not know this scene of the wonderful "Fantasy" of Disney. From the age of four the children are prepared to enjoy the beautiful work of Camile Saint-Saëns that contains it and that is one of the simplest and suitable to introduce them to the pleasures of classical music: "The carnival of the animals".
In 1886 Camile Saint-Saëns wrote a fun instrumental work full of animals: here appear lions, chickens, turtles, kangaroos, donkeys and several more. The composer planned the music as a joke for a carnival day, so he has touches of good humor and especially plays with the sounds and movements of the animals "translated" to the instruments.
It is a zoological fantasy is a work composed of 14 small pieces. Except for the last one, they all have animal names and the music evokes them.
We can first listen to some fragments and identify, with the explanations proposed by this Sepiensa page, to learn with the children how to identify each instrument and, in passing, to reproduce the movement that animals would make to the rhythm of music. They explain to us when the elephant walks like a clarinet or how the rooster pecks like a piano. It is very interesting to discover later how each musical instrument sounds.
Then the ideal is to listen to each piece one by one completely. And while imitating the lion, the wild asses running and the hens hovering around the corral is hilarious. Although nothing, nothing, like trying to dance the Can Can of Offenbach to the rhythm of a turtle.
I assure you that with "The carnival of the animals" You learn to identify the sound of each instrument and adults and children will dance and laugh to the rhythm of this fantastic parade.
